Has anyone been paid their salary in cash or cheque in the UK?
Posted by Top-Cat-a@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 269 comments
I started work in 1985 and I've always been paid electronically. I'm always amazed when US people refer to getting paid by check
Silver_Adagio138@reddit
Late 70s got actual pay packets with the notes folded in half and with coins.
Terrible_Ad_8614@reddit
My frost job on London was for a small digital agency. We were paid by check for my first few years there. I had a stack of paying-in slips and envelopes in my desk, and we'd all walk down to Chiswick High Street payday lunch time and grab a pint on the way back
CherryHavoc@reddit
My first job as a teen in a big department store in the early noughties was paid in cash.
Voodoopulse@reddit
When I started work in a factory when I was 16 in 2001 you got your wages in a pay packet as you walked out on Friday. Thats the only job though
maddogscott@reddit
Same here when I was an apprentice in 1992. £118 for a weeks work in an envelope at Friday lunchtime. Thought I was the richest guy in the world.
Boboshady@reddit
I was pulling £140 a week after tax around 1999, and that was enough for my mortgage, bills, some modest savings AND a few beers here and there.
I could also go a week on £10 a diesel, which is all I'd get for £140 of fuel these days.
FakeNathanDrake@reddit
I was on £105/week as a first year 15 years later, so from my point of view you practically were!
Unhappy_Clue701@reddit
Assuming you were living at home and so had few living expenses, that would indeed have gone a fair way back then! The challenge was keeping hold of enough cash after Friday night to put some in the bank next morning.
maddogscott@reddit
You’re spot on. £15 for digs to my mum and dad and then the rest was mine. And to think I wanted to grow up and get a mortgage and stuff! Idiot that I was.
Born_Sheepherder_243@reddit
The good old days when Britain was Britain
sparklychestnut@reddit
As opposed to what? I'm pretty sure we're not Germany now, or France, unless I missed something?
NoFewSatan@reddit
What?
Born_Sheepherder_243@reddit
Yeh u heard me
NoFewSatan@reddit
Ok, it makes no sense.
Boboshady@reddit
I've never been paid by cheque, used to get paid half cash, half transfer though (all taxed, it was just a cash-heavy business and I was young so it was a nice split of rent / savings in the bank, and cash to do with as I pleased).
I don't KNOW this, but I'm fairly sure when people in the US talk about their 'pay check', they're not actually referring to paper checks. Not any more, anyway. Surely not...?
ShortFlamingo3409@reddit
I used to work for Mark's & Spencers back in the early 90s working nights. I had to go to the payroll office every Saturday morning to collect my pay in a wax envelope (which was very annoying as my shift finished at 6am and payroll opened at 9am).
txteva@reddit
Paid in cash at M&S in 2007 - it was a Christmas job and payroll had some issue with getting the correct bank details. I was paid in cash as a quick fix on the day and we kept it like that since I was only on a temp contract. Went to the accounts office for a wad of cash each week.
DMMMOM@reddit
I was paid cash solely for about the first 10 years of my working life. Cheque and cash after that and I don't think I got paid electronically until the early 2000s.
robthablob@reddit
One of my first jobs was at a Stonemason's yard, definitely paid in cash, in a wage packet. Sometime in late 80s.
Freedom-For-Ever@reddit
Paper round in 1981, Saturday job in 1982 and my first full time job 1985-6
Ennochie@reddit
When i started work in 1977, I received a literal pay packet. In 1978, they paid our wages into a bank account.
REALQWERTY11309@reddit
Nothing above the table has been paid cash or cheque for me.
But I worked fairgrounds for 4 years and even a couple showmen paid by bank if you asked them to. My gaffer was cash only unless he left me somewhere.
achillea4@reddit
Not since 1986.
ThereIWasDigging@reddit
I was one of the last people at the company i was in to be paid cash and weekly. My payslip came down from headoffice in the shop mail once a week and the manager counted out my wages from the till and made me sign for it. This is was 2012 or so
Stunning-Pudding-514@reddit
I started work in 1985 and was paid cash. My ex brother in law worked in a local tool shop up until covid and he all the other people working there were still paid cash every week.
audigex@reddit
My first two jobs in a shop and pub both paid cash in an envelope at the end of the week
Sometimes if the boss at the shop hadn’t don’t it yet, he’d just pull the cash from the till (rounded up) and then I’d get the extra PAYE slip next week
Nothing dodgy about it either, surprisingly considering it was all cash - I can see all the info on the HMRC website nowadays and they always paid the NI if I was over the threshold (I don’t think I was ever over for tax, it was only a Saturday job type of situation)
TruthfulRepugnance@reddit
Many years ago, 17hrs through the books, little brown envelope with notes in to make up the remainder. 👍
g1hsg@reddit
My first job was paid in cash in 1978. Everything post that has been via BACS.
lornamabob@reddit
I used to get paid by cheque when I worked in a bar in 2011. It was a pretty sketchily run place anyway so that wasn't the only red flag.
crow-magnon-69@reddit
Comet electrical around 88-89 was still cash. Funny thing was they'd send a security company to pick up cash from the store, but we'd have to go and take the wage money out the bank (was made up into packets in store) every week without any security!
Englishmuffin1@reddit
In my first job (2005-2007), every Saturday I got a little brown envelope with my weekly pay in cash. It was only about £90, but with no bills or commitments, it was the last time I remember feeling flush!
poshbakerloo@reddit
2006-2008 I worked at the local post office shop and was paid cash from the till. No tax although I definitely earned under the tax threshold anyway.
Defiant-Table-9131@reddit
I worked in a call centre in 2012, it was cold calling sales but we were paid in cash every Friday
TheHCav@reddit
Yes, in checks.
Late 90's to around 2008. At one employment. The employers weren't keen to match the minimum wage increases when it was announced on time. Always few months later. We got paid weekly. We were all students. We all thought they used to launder money or partake in some tax evading practices.
SoggyWotsits@reddit
Cheques hopefully!
TheHCav@reddit
Potatos potatoes. I've been working in an American English speaking environment and it shows...
SocieteRoyale@reddit
getting paid 'by cheque' is usually a metaphor to just being paid, I doubt it relates to an actual cheque you have to cash in the bank anymore
Sure-Recognition-262@reddit
I've not (though I did receive a cheque on 2 occasions from different employers to correct pay screw-ups) but my father-in-law did until probably about 15 years ago. He was a mechanic in a relatively small independent garage & bodyshop.
I can remember not long after that changed, he was grumbling about "not getting holiday pay" since it changed - initially I thought he meant they were no longer getting paid holidays (which would of course have been illegal) but it turned out that he was used to receiving his wages for a period of annual leave before going on leave - so taking 2 weeks in the summer meant that on the Friday before he'd get 3 weeks wages on the Friday he was finishing up (1 weeks normal wage plus 2 weeks holiday pay). Obvs with it not being physically handed to him, he could be paid it while away from work.
Unlikely_Worker_8953@reddit
You've got to remember that although parts of America are very technologically advanced, 99% of the USA is not. If anything the USA is always running a few decades behind the rest of the world in technological advances being implemented on a national scale. Hence why people still get paid by cheque (or check as the idiots write it) even though the rest of the world does instant electronic payments. The yanks can't even send money to their friends like we can (or if they can it's a recent improvement for them rather than the normal way things are done for the rest of us), I can pick up my phone and send £1 or £10k to someone instantly, bank account to bank account and no wanky third party apps who will skim a percentage. The yanks have to use PayPal/cash app etc because the USA is so fucking backwards. We've had contactless payment for like 20 years or so, the yanks are still struggling to implement it on the same scale. The USA does a good job of pretending to be a modern nation through Hollywood and whatnot, but really the USA is decades behind everyone else in actual implementation of any technological advances.
The USA is a third world country in a Gucci belt. Their national priorities are fucked. The yanks are fucked and usually under educated and over served nationalist propaganda so they don't see how fucked they are.
TheVentiLebowski@reddit
I've been able to do bank account to bank account with no "skim" for years here in America. I've also been paid via direct deposit into my bank account for literal decades.
Dedward5@reddit
I do suspect a lot of it is figurative though. Same as use of the term “pay packet” that’s still used (but less so than it was)
TheVentiLebowski@reddit
It is figurative. I'm American and I've been working in the corporate world for almost twenty-five years now. I've always gotten direct deposit and I've always called it my paycheck.
The only time I got a physical check was when I didn't bother sending in my bank routing info to a temp job about twenty years ago, and when my UK-based employer had an issue with their payroll processing firm one week and sent me a physical check via overnight express.
fickle_tartan@reddit
Mostly, yep. I looked this up a little while ago because I'd always assumed it only a figure of speech, but actually some people do still get paper cheques which just seems like such a hassle.
3.7% of people according to this survey in 2024
Goldf_sh4@reddit
Not since 2001.
PootMcGroot@reddit
I lived in America for several years. It's completely normal to spend one Sunday every month writing cheques for the various utilities, direct debt has not caught on there.
I found it baffling and ridiculously time consuming.
TheVentiLebowski@reddit
When was this? I'm in the US and pay everything electronically.
bored_toronto@reddit
Got some of my pay in Luncheon Vouchers back in the 90's.
thatguyjames_uk@reddit
cash about 30 years ago
BlokeyBlokeBloke@reddit
I worked at Butlins in the 1990s and we got paid in cash. Used to queue up at the cashier's window and get handed a little brown envelope of cash and our payslips.
hello__monkey@reddit
Screw Butlins! I was a barrow boy when I was a teenager.
Only place I can think of where I had to pay them to work, and when I worked it was unpaid with only the hope of some tips from customers. I think my worst day ever I did hours of work and got tipped an apple!
If I knew then what I know now I’d have been onto the HMRC hotline straight away.
batchelorm77@reddit
Yup, Bognor in 96''. If you were a supervisor you also could get your pay a day early 🤣
BlokeyBlokeBloke@reddit
Bognor 96-2000! You could also get pay a day early if your staff card was marked "General Management" because the cashier staff thought that meant you were actually a manager even though I wasn't.
batchelorm77@reddit
What department were you in. I was bars, started in Broadway then over to Irish bar when it opened.
BlokeyBlokeBloke@reddit
Started in the Plaza, ended up on Day Gate.
bizzledizzle90@reddit
I lived in Canada for 2 years around 2010 and I used to have to queue up for a cheque and then walk to the bank and then queue up to cash it in there and wait 2-3 days for my wages …. Insane
ItsDominare@reddit
My very first job as a teenager was working the weekend evening shifts at a petrol station, they paid me by cheque. I think that's the only one though.
stickyfiddle@reddit
I got paid by check every 2 weeks in one job, but it was run by a nut case American who thought English laws didn’t apply to him and his business, so hardly surprising
JerronVrayl@reddit
Working at a nightclub from 2008-12, we got paid weekly in cash in a little brown envelope. Job centre wouldn't accept the writing on the envelope as evidence of anything so lost all benefits immediately when I started and had to find a second job VERY quickly.
owl_jones@reddit
i did in 2015 and I believe it's still like this for contractors.
Etheria_system@reddit
I used to get paid by cheque when I worked as a nanny back in the mid 00s. I got a hand written payslip as well
Doug__Quaid@reddit
Retail in the 2000's was cash in hand each week
redoxburner@reddit
My first job I was just paid in cash out of the till when I left on a Saturday, it was in a café and this was in 2000. My next job was in a shop and there it was done through bank transfer every two weeks, and it's been bank transfer every day since.
When my mum went back to work once we were old enough, one of her responsibilities was filling the pay packets for the workers to collect, I don't remember if it was weekly or monthly, but it was definitely in cash. This would have been around 1991, at a small but not tiny manufacturing plant.
fost1692@reddit
Worked for the local council until late '84, Thursday was payday when you went by the office to collect your pay packet, a brown windowed envelope hopefully stuffed with cash.
itsapotatosalad@reddit
Never working legally.
Obscure-Oracle@reddit
Not since the early 2000s, up until around 2004ish. It absolutely sucked having to go to the bank every week to pay it in. It was a small family run pub and customers mostly paid in cash back then.
Sburns85@reddit
Yeah Safeways in 2002 for 6 months while the pay system got updated. Now once or twice by cheque for jobs I did while self employed part time
3rdLion@reddit
10 years ago, worked in a pub paying me below min wage in cash
Apprehensive-Top3675@reddit
I was paid by cheque as late as 2008 (working for a small business).
To be clear, when Americans refer to their 'paycheck', that does not literally mean they are being paid by check; they mostly use direct deposit, just like we do.
jezhayes@reddit
Paid by cheque when I worked for a small video rental shop chain back in 2005/6 and cash in hand for some less official jobs. But been bank transfer mostly since I joined the workforce since 1999
Munchkinpea@reddit
A company I left in 2004 still paid by cheque on the last working day of the month. Had to nip to the bank (thankfully they still had local branches back then) in my lunch break to pay it in.
noodlezs76@reddit
Not since 1999
kapowey@reddit
I did back in 2009 for about a year. The company only changed to bank transfer after my manager begged for them repeatedly to do so, out of modern necessity.
Grillenium-Falcon@reddit
First proper job in ~2000 was paid in cash. Waiting tables at a hotel in Blackpool.
Paid electronically up until 2015 when I landed a sous chef job at a golf club where the catering company owner would pay in cash with a massive wad of £50's.
He's no longer in business for some reason.
BiggestNizzy@reddit
Used to get paid in cash up until the late 90's then the company I worked for got bigger and the boss didn't like going to the bank to get 50 guys weekly wage.
Mountain-Brain-4791@reddit
I used to get paid cash when I worked behind the bar electric ballroom in Camden in 2001 we got £37.50 for 2 4 hour shifts Fridays and Saturdays 10 till 2 . All the girls got loads of tips but there was only a couple of us boys and we hardly got any tips so wasn’t very well paid!
prustage@reddit
Yes.
Got my first job in 1970 (aged 15) and this was paid with a pay packet with notes and coins in it.
Around 1978 I started getting paid by cheque.
It was in 1981 that I got my first job where salary was paid straight into my bank account.
specialistmidon@reddit
Started work with Royal Mail in 1990. Was paid electronically weekly but some of the older ones got paid in cash on Fridays
AcePlanespotting@reddit
Not since the 90's
Dear_Tangerine444@reddit
Not since the late 90s.
Outrageous_Shake2926@reddit
The only time I was ever paid cash was when I had a summer job in 1984.
SlowRs@reddit
Work in the trades and getting paid in cash isn’t uncommon
smushs88@reddit
Yup, early 2000s end of shift on a Saturday would get our weeks pay in the little square brown pay packets.
Simpler times.
Daisies_forever@reddit
I used to be payed by cheque in Australia, this would 2006/2007ish. But it felt odd then 😂
HospitalDue2983@reddit
Not since 1986 (cash). Next job in '88 was bank transfer
buginarugsnug@reddit
When I used to work as a waitress around 15 years ago we had the option between cash or bank transfer.
LinuxMage@reddit
Not since the early 1990's. I was working for a bingo place and they used to pay us in cash. But every employer since then has been electronic transfer.
jaymz492@reddit
Nice try HMRC
bluemoon191@reddit
I once had a really horrible job. The ad for the job said it was a brand new factory so I was thinking state of the art machinery. Nah it was old shit to make powder jelly mix, when you went to wipe your brow from sweat you could feel the jelly forming on your head. I gave my notice and didn't work all of it, they couldn't deal with my 10 digit account number from a building society so just sent my a cheque for the hours worked.
fblthpthewise@reddit
I used to get an envelope of cash every Friday. Only 10 or so years ago.
moondust1959@reddit
In the '70s I worked part time in retail and was paid weekly by cash in an envelope. When I started my first full-time job in the early '80s I was also paid cash weekly. I was never paid by cheque. Went straight from cash to bank transfer in mid-'80s.
Physical-Industry-21@reddit
I have been paid in cash lots of times in the past (90s). Fuck the tax man !!
Reasonable-Feed-9805@reddit
Used to get £50 notes as a 16 year old in the 90s. Felt like a millionaire.
SimpleExpress2323@reddit
I worked for a successful IT business in the north and was paid by cheque right until I left in 2011.
The chairman of the company - he was the founder in the 70s - would sign every single pay cheque each month (hundreds of them) because that's how he wanted it to be.
About one in four times the cheque would arrive on my desk at 3:55 pm on Friday and you couldn't bank it until Monday.
I even changed my main account from HSBC to be the exact same bank and branch as the company account as it would clear the same day. Annoyingly the branch wasn't open on a weekend and at the time the mobile app didn't allow you to pay cheques in with it.
No-Sherbert-9589@reddit
Both in the past
bopeepsheep@reddit
Cash in cash-heavy businesses (cinema, pub, shop) 1987-91. Cashable cheques when I was an on-off temp in the 90s, but paid via BACS whenever I was a permanent employee from 1992 on.
pb89@reddit
Yep, student union bar. Would pick up our cheques every Tuesday and go to the bank to deposit. Would clear 2 days later lol. 2008-11.
Critical-Lettuce-503@reddit
Back in 2018 I did a few months working for a local bakery. The manager paid everyone in cash.
The manager was very computer literate and could easily have done a bank transfer. Before he opened a bakery, he was paid a lot, by bank transfer. He just felt that it was a more personal act to pay by cash and he acknowledged it mean more to him that it did to his employees.
DistinctVariation775@reddit
Cash in hand is still not uncommon .. he wasnt doing that to be nostalgic i doubt.. people do it to dodge the tax man ..🙃
Critical-Lettuce-503@reddit
That would be true if he didn't also include a pay slip denoting NI, tax and statutory pension deductions and it showing up in the details of my tax record on HMRC. He wasn't the type to dodge or evade tax.
It wasn't nostalgia. Working in an artisan bakery is fairly physical work. I think paying with tangible money in relation to that was important to him.
JohnLennonsNotDead@reddit
Could have kept himself below the VAT threshold though…
JamOverCream@reddit
I had similar when I worked in a pub and a garden centre in the 90s. Was paid in cash but included payslip with the expected deductibles.
Both owners/managers did it because they wanted staff to have the money immediately rather than have to wait for cheques to clear.
DistinctVariation775@reddit
ah yeah he was doing it right then!
Lol at the physical work side.. i see what your saying.. but also dont really get that as a self employed person myself who does physical work.. personally i find receieving cash just a nuicence. I want to save and bank my money ..so it means i then have to get to the bank at some pont and cash the money. Its a right nuicence even finding a bank these days... and im always working on the hours they are open!
DistinctVariation775@reddit
ah yeah he was doing it right then!
Lol at the physical work side.. i see what your saying.. but also dont really get that as a self employed person myself..(currently building a house so real physical work).. personally i find receieving cash just a nuicence. I want to save and bank my money ..so it means i then have to get to the bank at some pont and cash the money. Its a right nuicence even finding a bank these days... and im always working on the hours they are open!
Critical_Hedgehog451@reddit
2014 - 2017 payslip and cash once a week, worked full time in a bar
True-Organization156@reddit
Paid by cheque late 90s. Got paid Thursdays, local pub would cash it for you, so would end up spending 1/4 of it before seeing home and productivity wouldn’t have been good on Friday. 😁
Old_Cartographer6939@reddit
As late as 2003 I was paid in cash when I worked at a club!
SosigDoge@reddit
Worked as a taxi driver in a real rural backwater up until about 6 months ago. When I started in 2018 I got a small square brown envelope with a wage slip and cash inside every week. This continued until mid way through lockdown when they needed to furlough us and it had to be legit. Some small businesses still do it locally.
Crunchie64@reddit
I worked for a small training company for half of 2011.
Staff got paid by cheque with no pay slip or deductions, and at least one cheque bounced every month.
Sometimes we got to work from home for a few days when the electricity was cut off for non-payment.
Icy-Initial2107@reddit
In the early 2000s I was paid by cheque for the first few months at a new IT company until they sorted out their business banking, then again later at another job at a failing retailer/wholesaler but there I was sometimes also partially paid by cash; completely taxed and above board, mind, but towards the end they had cash flow issues so sometimes rather than pay to put cash in to the business account only to pay it out again they'd pass it directly to us employees as many customers paid in stacks of £50 notes.
Its pretty wild, though, within the ~25 years since then cash has almost completely disappeared from my life. I don't pay by cash anymore and I see fewer and fewer other people do so either.
lungbong@reddit
Part time jobs and paper round in the 90s were all cash. I worked for an agency for a couple of months, they paid by cheque. Everything else has been BACS.
AWildAndWoolyWastrel@reddit
Last time was tending bar at a working men's club in the late 1980s.
soulsteela@reddit
Working farms earning about £700 a week in the 90’s, all in a paper envelope at the end of the week.
spiderplant94@reddit
Circa 2010 I worked in a small high street accountant/book keepers office as a receptionist, they paid me by cheque.
Also worked in a pub pulling pints around the same time that paid in cash.
EconomicsAfraid7880@reddit
My 2nd job was working in a village shop. You just took your wages out of the till at the end of your shift.
Top-Cat-a@reddit (OP)
A local shop for local people, by any chance?
minadequate@reddit
We’ll have not trouble here!
adymann@reddit
I can, I can't?
EconomicsAfraid7880@reddit
Oh extremely so.
minadequate@reddit
I got paid by cheque for a little while in 2007. Was a summer job (in an architecture studio) and fortunately only 10minutes walk from my bank.
I lived in Canada in 2020 and my husband got paid for maybe his first 3 months by cheque… the bank was like an hour by public transport away and you couldn’t just photograph it to deposit it like I did last time I put a cheque in in the uk.
mysterylemon@reddit
I used to get paid in cash back in the mid 00s. Not dodgy, fully taxed with a pay slip. No idea why we got it in cash, I always used to walk straight down to the bank on pay day to pay it in.
PerroAtomico@reddit
First bar job in London I was paid cash every Friday. I worked in SW and lived in SE so Friday nights were particularly fun navigating public transport at midnight with a 30-45min stop in Peckham where I changed busses
Every 2nd Friday we were paid out tips as well in cash to make the trip home even more exciting for me.
c0tch@reddit
Yeah a long time ago
Wormvortex@reddit
I’ve only been paid in cash when I was a kid doing a paper round. Used to get it weekly in a little brown envelope. £16 or something like that with a £2 bonus if no one called up to complain. Used To probably take me 30-40mins per day and the round was where I lived so I practically finished on my doorstep.
super_sammie@reddit
2017, worked at M&S was given a little brown envelope once a week with my wages in cash.
FatBloke4@reddit
Yes - in early 1980s. Small brown envelope with coins inside, notes and payslip protruding, folded over and stapled,
Whoppa-seagull@reddit
I got £5.00 for a 40hour week after tax & ins.
Whoppa-seagull@reddit
I started work in 1965 & was paid in cash in an envelope with the details of tax , Nat ins etc on the front.
lonehorizons@reddit
The US is really backwards in so many ways compared to other western countries. When they got their stimulus cheques during covid they were actual cheques, millions of them sent through the post by the government. Lots got lost in the mail.
They have to physically go to offices and queue up for a lot of government services because there’s never any investment of tax into useful online systems like we have here.
Biden’s government launched an online self assessment website for tax returns like the one we have here and the big companies that charge people to do their taxes for them lobbied Trump to shut it down because they couldn’t make money from tax returns anymore. All that public money wasted.
Ragnarsdad1@reddit
Early 2000's i was still getting paid with cash, handed out in a brown envelope at the end of shift on fridays. The payslip was hand written and would have deductions for lateness etc.
blamordeganis@reddit
Recently? No. When I worked holidays at uni in an off licence? Paid out of the till every week (with a proper payslip, nothing dodgy).
Figgzyvan@reddit
Not since the late 80s.
poogobberr@reddit
Came here to say this, technically you can ask to be paid in cash nowadays but most companies won't.
EconomicsAfraid7880@reddit
My 2nd job was working in a village shop. You just took your wages out of the till at the end of your shift.
RhysT86@reddit
Yeah when I was working for Mark's and Sparks as a Christmas/summer temp from about 2003-2006.
ThatstheTahiCo@reddit
2008 Marks and Spencer's used to pay me in cash. Envelope with pay slip
cstrife87@reddit
when i was working at savers in around 2006 they used to pay in cash each week, used to be annoying waiting around for 30 mins - 1hr after everyone was ready to go to get our wages. fortunately when they changed to superdrug it went to bacs
east112@reddit
I worked for one of the largest American tech cos less than 10 years ago and was paid in cheque by default unless I updated my preferences to be paid electronically. This preference would only be saved for three months and I would start getting cheques again unless I updated my preference again.
zah_ali@reddit
So when you’re paid via cheque, I’m assuming you have to go deposit it in a bank and then wait a few days for the funds to clear?
east112@reddit
Pretty much. Even the biggest American banks wouldn't let you deposit more than a few thousand via a mobile deposit.
beavertownneckoil@reddit
£25k a day here for reference. Or my bank at least
mbridge2610@reddit
That’s generally how a cheque works
zah_ali@reddit
I suspected so, wasn’t sure if it was any different it’s a salary payment or something. The idea of Having to wait an additional few days to actually receive the money in your account sounds crazy!
Unhappy_Clue701@reddit
Most UK banks let you photograph the cheque from within their app, and then credit it immediately. If it bounces later when they try to collect payment from the bank that issued the cheque, obviously they will take the money back from your account - but assuming that doesn’t happen, it’s only about a minute or two’s work to get the money.
zah_ali@reddit
Funnily enough I get a check every few months on my mobile contract cashback and I use my banking app to deposit it and works exactly as you mentioned :)
Unhappy_Clue701@reddit
American banking systems do seem to be a long way behind. Worth noting that UK banks will generally credit a cheque immediately these days. With modern banking apps letting you pay a cheque in via the camera on your phone, it’s pretty painless.
Maleficent-Win-6520@reddit
Yes. In a brown envelope in cash.
Fun-Mammoths@reddit
Not myself but my dad is a mechanic and there’s an MOT testing company in the same yard who pay exclusively in cash. He has been there around 20 years now and it’s always been the same. Bizarre if you ask me.
lucky1pierre@reddit
Only for cash in hand jobs in a bar or corner shop. Started working in 2005 and all my legit jobs have paid into my bank.
emmjaybeeyoukay@reddit
I worked part time at Tesco in the early/mid 80's for a couple of years. We got paid in cash in a small envelope with our pay slip. Not sure if that was just the part time college students or all the blue-coat shop floor staff.
WiseFloss@reddit
My friend bought a business in 2010 didn’t realise staff were paid weekly in cash. The bookkeeper would come in with the wage calculations handwritten in an A5 notebook with a slip that he would take to the bank to draw out exactly the right amount of cash and coins to fill each brown pay packet envelope which had a handwritten wage slip ready inside. He went nuts at time wasted going to the bank every week - and the bank would charge for cash withdrawals. After a few months he convinced them to change to BACS for instant transfers (avoided any bank charges for cheques as well) then eventually to monthly payments.
LemmysCodPiece@reddit
Yes, but not since the late 90s.
gerty88@reddit
Yes around Covid at a bar in Shoreditch….. SBG💀💀
UndulatingUnderpants@reddit
I worked on building site in the early 2000s and we got paid in cheques on a Friday, we would then all go to the local boozer who would charge 5% to cash it.
nostalgebra@reddit
Too young for this but older colleagues in the civil service tell me they were allowed to finish 3 hours early on pay day to go to the bank with their cheques!
roamingnomad7@reddit
Last time I got paid cash was mid 90s. I remember the little brown envelope, with the wage slip folded up inside. The heft of the envelope was always reassuring too!
robchap@reddit
Worked at a nightclub in 98 that paid cash, and a hotel in 2000 that paid monthly by cheque - massive pain in the arse
JorgiEagle@reddit
When I was 16 got a job in the local chippy, run by a husband and wife.
Got paid in cash each week in a little brown envelope.
You’d walk in, go to the safe, and just grab your packet. Never had an issue somehow, no one ever took someone else’s. It was very close knit
SoggyWotsits@reddit
In the early 2000s I was paid in cash. Brown envelope, cash and a pay slip. Also waitressing before that, not that I used to earn very much!
KungenBob@reddit
I never have, but I visited a small workshop for work on a payday and they were given envelopes of cash with a payslip. I think that was 91, and it read pretty exceptional. The owner was in their 70s.
tiorzol@reddit
I used to really love folding over the little flaps and pulling the perforated edges off lol
Unhappy_Clue701@reddit
Oh yes. Especially if you’d done a lot of overtime. 🤣
Railuki@reddit
Americas banking system is behind the times in lots of ways.
Like they don’t have direct debits so lots of people have to manually pay bills like rent????
TheGoober87@reddit
My dad was very tech adverse when he was working and used to pay my brother (his only employee) by cheque every month.
Only stopped a couple of years ago when he retired.
JonJo42@reddit
I used to be paid in cash weekly when I worked in nightclubs, pubs and restaurants in the early 1990s. Little brown envelope collected from the office on a Friday.
highrouleur@reddit
My dad was a tool maker at a small engineering firm, I think he retired in 85, but I remember him bringing home a brown envelope with cash energy Friday.
Only job I've done for cash was an evening paper round aged 13, everything since has been straight into my bank
LJ161@reddit
Not since 2006
Unhappy_Clue701@reddit
I had a cash-paid job in about 1990, in a shoe shop. The payslips would be sent to the shop from head office, and the cash then literally taken from the till by the manager to hand over with the payslip. It was very low amounts though - I only did about four hours a week as a Saturday boy.
badger906@reddit
My company paid cash until Covid. We were cash dominant (retail store). Then went hard card dominant over night. it’s recovered since then and is like 30% cash. But still kept the bank payments.
EldritchSanta@reddit
Used to work 12 hour night shifts in a factory through an employment agency, a long time ago.
Because the agency were dickheads, you had to go collect the cheque off them during their opening hours (ie when you were supposed to be asleep). Not that I'm bitter that they couldn't post the cheques, or just pay it electronically. Lazy arseholes.
peppermint_aero@reddit
Cash in the late 90s. Became bank transfer by 2003ish.
The US generally is quite far behind the UK on banking technology.
MickHucknallsMumsDog@reddit
I've never heard of anyone in the UK ever getting paid by check.
I did get paid by *cheque* when I was younger though.
RolePlayingJames@reddit
One time a previous employer had an issue with transferring pay to us for some reason, they managed to secure some cash for a limited number of workers. You were asked if you could wait the extra few days or if you needed the money right away.
ScaredPractice4967@reddit
Ibwas last paid regularly by cash in around 1991. I have been paid irregularly in cash a few times since then. 😆
I have also had cheques in the early 1990s not since then though.
IBumpedMyHead@reddit
I worked for crack converters on and off in the early 2000s
We were paid in cash once a month, as it was a cash heavy business and saved having to do the branch banking that Friday
We had pay slips, and PAYE & NI was done through the store's bank account like normal
Locking up in a generally shitty area with a month's wages in cash in your pocket was not the most fun experience
bakteriafarmer@reddit
Only once since I started working. I was working in a badly run call centre and the last week before Xmas they “ran out of time to do the payroll”, so one by one we got called into the managers office and got given an envelope of cash and coins. It was very odd walking through town with an envelope of cash.
Advanced_Apartment_1@reddit
I got paid by check from 98 till 2005.
mbridge2610@reddit
Worked in a snooker hall circa 2000 and was paid in cash. It came in a little brown envelope.
Slight_Emu_9636@reddit
Both in the same job (restaurant kitchen job at uni 2013/14), although the cash and cheque were one offs.
First month I started they forgot to add my to the pay run and paid me in cash (after asking if they could just pay me next month. Er no!). When I handed in my resignation I picked up my P45 and a cheque for the last month’s wages. All intervening payments by bank though.
koolgoosetm@reddit
Used to work for a pub 2013/4 that would pay us by cheque each Friday. Rumour was the owner also owned the cheque cashing place over the road, but one manager said he made more from people forgetting to collect/deposit them.
Important-Menu3903@reddit
Worked in restaurants up until 2003. They all paid cash.
ActionBirbie@reddit
Never, and I suspect I'm a bit older than the average Redditor as well.
dweedman@reddit
Got paid in cash at a couple of pub jobs I worked at in the mid 2010s - doubt they pay cash now
Tangential, but my brother got transferred by his then employer Goldman Sachs to the US in 2019 and he genuinely received his first few salary payments there in cheques, can't remember why. Surely no one in the UK is getting paid in cheques these days?
pointsofellie@reddit
In 2002 I got my first part time job in TK Maxx. I was 16 and didn't have a bank account, only child savings which they couldn't pay into so I did get paid by cheque!
jitsudan@reddit
Argos paid me in cash ~ 2006
budgiebirdman@reddit
Cash thirty years ago.
takesthebiscuit@reddit
When I worked for an old family company, they told me to pay expenses on my personal credit card and they would reimburse me.
After a busy month traveling I had about £600 on my credit card, put in my expenses claim which was paid no question but in CASH!
I then had to remind myself not to fritter it away as £600 was still owed
They agree to pay my expenses by bank transfer
Apparently the old rep preferred cash to keep the money from his wife!
UniquePotato@reddit
I was paid cash back in around 2000-2002, the company was owned by a Turkish guy that had a fondness for £50 notes. PAYE was all paid electronically.
zigzog7@reddit
I worked in a pub in about 2008/9 and was paid cash every 2 weeks I think (with a proper payslip, but cash in an envelope)
Every other job I’ve had was bank transfer
FitConfection50@reddit
Only been paid in cash for jobs like working in a pub.
America is hilariously backward with banking, they started rolling out chip and pin 10 years after the UK. I remember working in a shop when people used to sign for payments and would regularly think it would be stupidly easy to forge. I guess in America people liked that?
Most people's signatures didn't match their card or they were dumb things like a dot or a series of circles like a broken etcha sketch.
External_Range_2554@reddit
My first job in 2017 was cash, my second job in 2018 was cheque. Then for my other three it was electronic
AndyVale@reddit
Nice try HMRC.
r_keel_esq@reddit
In 2002, I worked in a sandwich shop for three weeks that was cash in hand.
Been a tax-paying, BACS paid employee in every job before or after, and I've been in the workforce since 2000
slophiewal@reddit
Yes I got cash when I had my first job about 20 years ago, and then cheque from the job after that.
fussyfella@reddit
When I used to work in a factory before going to university and in the holidays in the late 1970s I was paid in cash - once a week (it was a wage not a salary) we would queue up at a window by the office and be given our pay packet. It was quite literally a small packet (well envelope) with cash, including coins inside.
I was briefly paid by cheques when I was setting up a business for an American company and they had no mechanism for direct bank transfers other than in US dollars, but that was only for a couple of months before we got the UK business account working.
Every other job where I was employed was paid by direct bank transfer.
SnooHamsters5480@reddit
The only time i ever got paid in cash was for my paper round in 2006. Never have and would never want to be paid by cash or cheque.
JayBea-on-Sea@reddit
My first job as an apprentice in the late 90s I was paid by cheque. Small company. The boss was a little absent minded so the staff would take to mustering outside his office on payday to ensure the cheques were signed.
Other jobs I had before then were paid in cash. Everything after that I was paid electronically.
FreeBogwoppits@reddit
I worked in the civil service in the 90s, in what's now the DWP.
In 1994 there a few people still being paid weekly in cash. They had to go to the Cash Office every Thursday morning to collect their wages.
Ill_Citron_8473@reddit
Yeah when I worked in a pub I'd get a little envelope of cash at the end of each week. I was only doing about 10 hours a week for £6.50 and hour though so not exactly raking it in.
MrsTheBo@reddit
I had part-time student jobs in the 90s and early 2000s that were cash. If you weren’t scheduled to work in pay day, you had to either wait until you were next in work or go in specially, depending on how desperate you were for the money!
alexwhit80@reddit
My company still pays a handful of people by cheque. Probably 5 people in 300+
DoKtor2quid@reddit
I worked for the Wildlife Trust in the 90s, Mon-Thurs, and on Friday mornings I went to the office to pick up my small square brown envelope of cash. Loved it.
ProgrammerFickle1469@reddit
Worked as a student for Presto supermarket. Got paid weekly in cash in a small plastic envelope with a pink printed payslip on a Thursday. Took that money out drinking at the weekend. It was great!
172116@reddit
My paper round paid cash 20 years ago, but everything in the UK since then has been bank transfer!
I did work 2 summers in the US a little after that, where we were paid by cheque, and they had an agreement with the local bank to cash the cheques for the international staff.
Background-Agent-746@reddit
There's an international paper round exchange scheme?
quackers987@reddit
It's an exchange scheme, we send our paper boys to them, they send theirs to us. Gives them a bit of a cultural experience
RedWife77@reddit
I had a wage packet in the late 1990s when I did a summer job in a pub.
Thumbb93@reddit
I remember my mum got paid cash in the 00s when she worked for the corner shop down the road
Snecklad@reddit
I worked for a very old school, privately owned company in London and was paid by cheque between 2012 - 2016.
Was a massive pain in the arse.
AncientImprovement56@reddit
Appreciating the use of both "cheque" and "check", there!
Pre-covid, all my non-agency tutoring clients have me cash. It was pretty annoying having to go and pay it into the bank (and probably annoying for them too have to remember to withdraw cash to use to pay me), so when online teaching forced a switch to payment by bank transfer, I wondered why I hadn't done it that way all along!
cuccir@reddit
I worked at a racecourse as a steward in the mid-00s. Summer job, I started early in the car parks and knocked off while the racing was still on. They paid me in cash, all legit with tax and NI calculated but they had plenty of it floating around I guess.
It also meant that a good chunk of the money went back to the racecourse on a few occasions too...
ShiningCrawf@reddit
About 10 years ago, the company I worked for changed their payroll provider. For some reason, the new provider wasn't ready in time and payroll just wasn't happening. Not paying people wasn't really an option, so cash it was.
As the only qualified accountant in the office, that was a very long day for me.
ExperienceRough708@reddit
I had a job in a sawmill in 2005 after uni and it was all proper pay roll but we all waited in line for a brown envelope with our payslip and cash.
I tell you what I had some good shoulders on me doing that kinda work. Stacking wood all day. Often think I should temp there in my holidays from my day job
No-Jump-9601@reddit
I’ve never been paid by cheque at a regular job, always cash in a little brown envelope or directly into my bank. Currently, clients prefer to pay by bank transfer or card but I still get some who want to pay cash and I’m happy to take it.
powelly@reddit
My first job was in 93 at a supermarket and we got paid cash, had to go to the cash office on a Thursday and sign for a brown envelope with £16 in it.
Madwife2009@reddit
Only with my first job, back in 1986.
BedaFomm@reddit
The Thatcher government repealed the Truck Acts in 1983, I think, and that pretty much ended payment of wages in cash. It was convenient for employers but removed an ancient right from working people.
The Truck Acts had been in place since the Middle Ages, and guaranteed that workers could insist on being paid in cash, rather than paid in kind, company tokens or whatever else an unscrupulous employer might wish.
Cash was then phased out and replaced almost entirely by bank transfer. Firms no longer needed large cash deliveries every week, which had been a security and logistics burden, and a target for armed robbery. More staff were paid monthly instead of weekly so payroll admin was streamlined, and the only downside was that some low paid workers had problems budgeting over the longer period. People who lived from payday to payday could survive a day or two when the money ran out, but not for a whole week. They were also obliged to open bank accounts who had never needed one before, and were then open to more ways to get into debt via loans and overdrafts. Forty years later and using cash is becoming increasingly rare.
Tennonboy@reddit
Lonnnnnng time ago when my boss was going through a long costly divorce. A colleague once remarked it was the only firm he'd ever worked at that he'd been paid on every day of the week..
My boss usually paid wages last minute on a Friday, some times I was asked if a cheque was OK! Or once I was working sat & sun overtime. On the Friday he asked if it was OK to pay me Saturday which he did. When he came in Sunday he said here's your money for next week do you want it now or next week. I took it of course
We never didn't get paid and he always asked. Eventually when he was sorted we were then paid in the bank
Tennonboy@reddit
Oh! And when I first started work at 16 at ICI as an apprentice for about 3 years, that was 1980 / 81
irishlad162@reddit
I work in a family run Spar that still pays cash. I pay tax, national insurance, pension etc, and get a payslip. Why in 2026 they still do it that way I don't know.
macko939@reddit
I worked at a supermarket around a decade ago. Very popular chain. They paid me with a cheque for my last few shifts after I handed in my notice
daveoxford@reddit
I got paid in cash for my Saturday job in 1980. Since my first "proper" job in 1986, I've only ever been paid directly to my bank account.
emuostrich31415@reddit
When I first moved here only 10years ago in 2016 I worked in a small village bakery and got paid cash along side my payslip
BoomSatsuma@reddit
Nope. Got my first proper job in 2000. It was paid by bank transfer.
officearsehole@reddit
Yes, working in our local pub back in the mid 2000’s every Friday you could collect your pay envelope; cash combined with tips.
tragic1994@reddit
Yes 10 years ago he also paid me short £20
KingStevoI@reddit
I used to get paid in checks in the early 2000's as I didn't have a bank account at the time.
Fizzy_Lemonade_Lover@reddit
Yes when I worked as a barmaid
Next-Development5920@reddit
I think in my 1st job when I was like 15 or 16.....im now 40 with some extra dlc
DrH1983@reddit
I worked in a bar in the early 2000s, got paid cash at the end of the week.
Walking home at 4 in the morning with over a hundred quid in my pocket felt sketchy tbh
gjs78@reddit
I worked as a manager for JD Wetherspoons and staff were paid weekly in cash on a Thursday until about 2002. Doing the pay on a Thursday evening was on of the more frustrating jobs, especially seeing most the off-duty staff come in to collect their pay and then put a lot of it back in the till and the fruit machine…
Martinonfire@reddit
I started work in 72 and was paid in cash, £6 10s IIRC for 48 hours farm labouring* I thought I was rich!
Automatic-Plan-9087@reddit
My first “proper” job in 1975 paid by bank transfer. Left in 1979 to be a lifeguard at a local pool and got paid cash. Mid 1980’s I went to work for an insurance company and they paid by cheque. Royal pita having to trot through the town centre and stand in a seemingly endless queue every week. Everything since has been transfer.
adamfirth146@reddit
My 1st job when I was 16 was as a potwasher/waiter in a pub. I got paid in cash in an envelope. This was 2010ish. Once I started a proper job it was always electronic.
mandyhtarget1985@reddit
Not me but my company employed a lot of casual temporary staff for catering shifts. A lot of them were likely committing benefit fraud so didnt want money paid into their banks, so we paid cash. Still went through payroll, there was a payslip, but they were always very careful to keep it below the tax and NI threshold. Did it this way until about 2008.
dartiss@reddit
Various jobs I did in the late 1980s were paid in cash in a brown envelope (in a legitimate way, rather than sounding dodgy).
TroublesZoo@reddit
Always been bank transfer for me, first "real" job was in 1999.
Though when I was a gigging stand up comedian (was never good enough for it to be my full time job, I should add!) promoters would always hand you an envelope with the money in it.
mafu99@reddit
Cash or cheque up until 2007
Wonderful_Nerve_8308@reddit
In 2016 when I was doing delivery for a family owned Chinese takeaway as a side gig while looking for a job. They pay cash at the end of each shift.
Neacag@reddit
I got a cheque once because somebody put my time through as 5000 hours. They requested full amount back from the bank and didn't pay me at all. They said I would get it in next month's pay. I hit the roof because I have rent and bills to pay. I had to go to the head office and pick up a cheque. I was working for the council at that time.
Rextherabbit@reddit
In ‘98 worked at a small business and was paid cash, payslip was on the front of the brown envelope. Later when I got a proper bank account the account asked if I could get a 2nd paying in book, and I gave it to them and they used my paying in slip to pay directly into my bank.
Mysterious_Link_6870@reddit
Destoryally what shering
BambiTheInsane@reddit
Used to work at a coffee shop in Winchester called ginger two. The owners paid us in cash. Turns out after I left uni, the owners were done for tax evasion...
Curious-Term9483@reddit
Only when I was doing a part time job. 1 - my first job where we were paid in cash if we didn't earn more than a certain amount, so the people who did one day a week got an envelope with 15 quid in, which we had to sign for. (I assume we were below the LEL so it didn't have to go through payroll). Then the manager left and a new one started as the signing part stopped. Turned out later on new manager was signing for the wages of extra imaginary people. 2 - in a hotel where I lived in doing a sandwich year at uni. They gave me £100 a week in cash. (I think that was declared, I got a proper payslip, just saved them taking cash to the bank as often if they paid us like that?). I assume the chefs and other full time people who weren't on a sandwich year were paid electronically though.
Curious-Term9483@reddit
First was 1996 and the second was 1999.
speccynerd@reddit
I got paid in cash by a hotel until I left in 2004. Little brown envelope.
MiddleAgeCool@reddit
Not for decades but my first jobs a supermarket used to be in a little brown envelope with your weekly hours wrote on the front and collected from the payroll desk. It was less than £1.50 an hour.
Superspark76@reddit
I've worked in jobs where you got a brown envelope with your payslip and cash, was a pain as you had to go to the bank to deposit money to cover bills.
Have also been paid by cheque that you had to take to a local bank to cash, I worked 9-5 Monday to Friday so had to use my lunch break to go to the bank.
Longest_boat@reddit
When I was 16 working in a bar they’d pay me cash so they could pay me minimum wage after tax. (They weren’t paying tax) 😂
Sasspishus@reddit
Does a paper round count?
Youtalkingtomyboobs@reddit
Not since I worked as a catering assistant at the local Football ground in the late 90’s.
FOARP@reddit
My first few part-time/temp jobs paid by cheque for the first few salaries I recall? I think I/they hadn’t set up BACS.
pm_me_your_amphibian@reddit
I did in the 90’s when I was working Saturday jobs. One was at a greengrocers and the other at Woolies.
bfm211@reddit
Yep! I worked in a pub as a teen, late 2000s, and was paid in cash (no doubt as a tax evasion thing). Then in the late 2010s I worked at a community centre with very outdated systems. Every month we got an envelope with a payslip and a cheque.
Deity_Free_World@reddit
Had an office cleaning job in the evenings in the 70's. Mrs Jago would come round and give us our pay packets (little brown envelopes) ever Friday which we had to sign for. My last monthly salary at Amex in the 90's was paid by cheque on my last day. It was far more than I was expecting so I legged it to the bank and cashed it before wandering back to the office.
AndrewHinds67@reddit
When I started on British Rail in the 1980s, I used to pick up my wages every Thursday as cash with a pay slip. I went over to being paid in the bank every four weeks in the mid 90s. It's now the only way we get paid.
n3m0sum@reddit
Not since my first job in the early 90s. They were kind of an exception back then. Finally transitioned to bank deposit my first year.
If you are getting paid cash these days. Don't expect holiday pay, sick pay, tax or NI contributions. Or probably any employment rights for that matter.
Neddlings55@reddit
I worked for the Post Office about 20 years ago. We used to get paid via cheque. Wasnt a branch office though. Pay was fucking terrible too.
I got paid cash as a kid when i worked in boarding kennels. Started off on £2 a hour.
sihasihasi@reddit
Absolutely, my first two jobs (Saturday, and then a real one) were paid in cash. For the second one, the paper money was in an envelope with the corner cut off, so you could check it without opening the envelope.
1986-
vicbor65@reddit
Yes, when I came to live in the UK in 2002 and worked for a demolition company, I could not open a bank account at first, it is difficult in this country, and they paid me by check for a couple of months.
I went to a currency exchange in central London and cashed my check, paying 2% commission.
Nirnroot_Enjoyer@reddit
You'd only expect to be paid in cash if you work in a trade.
We have an awesome builder that we've used in our last 2 houses. And paying in cash means he can cut up to 20% off our bill, as he definitely wouldn't declare the earnings lol.
I also like to pay my barber in cash, for much of the same reason.
hellvixen1966@reddit
My partner got paid a weekly cash pay packet right up to 2017 . However the owner of the company was rather dodgy to say the least.
No_Preference9093@reddit
My casual uni job that I did between 2015-2018 paid me via cheque. I have no idea why, I would have thought bank transfer would have been easier for everyone but they were a weird bunch.
CongealedBeanKingdom@reddit
Not since 1999
MrsJBB@reddit
Only when I was a teenager and they didn't want to declare that I worked there!
Quiet_surprise79@reddit
I worked in a pub around 15 years ago that paid cash. It was a little village pub.
limegreenbunny@reddit
My first two jobs were paid in cash; I was paid £7.50 a week from the till for a paper round, and later given seemingly random amounts of cash in a brown envelope from a chip shop.
pryonic1705@reddit
When I was at university I got a summer job stuffing magazines and the associated leaflets into the bags ready for posting ( worst job I never had by a long stretch but that's another story...)
This was back in 2002 but they paid me cash including coins in a little envelope every week. That was weird even back then, both the job I ha before and after that paid into a bank account
It wasn't cash in hand as I had proper pay slips showing tax paid, it was just in cash weekly. When I quit I had to go in one last time to get my final pay (literal) packet
Nice_Conversations@reddit
Early 2000s when I had a temp job, they paid us weekly by cheque. Hated it and the job and thankfully found something else after a few weeks, so didn't stay long. It felt weird and a bit dodgy to be paid like that.
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